So this is a project I wanted to engage in- To make a set of 10+ super-budget 60-card decks that are simple, relatively easy to play, relatively easy to understand, and bring across the fundamentals of how Magic Works. We've since gone way past 10, with tons more in the works, and I've really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make these decks easy to play and understand, fun, and all under a $15 budget, sideboard included.
The main goal here is that you could easily build these deck for a low cost and use them as an easy introduction to how magic works, to teach a group of new players both how to play, and give them a sense of Why, a sense of what fun things they're getting into. These decks aren't gonna be particularly good, or even legal in any particular format if it stops me from including a card I think is good for the deck, but they should be fun and interesting without being too hard to get into. They should be an easily-accessible example of how fun Magic: The Gathering can be.
This is one of the more advanced decks- Not really the first decks you want people learning with, but a sweet, budget deck you can use once new players are already on their feet to really knock their socks off and get them to think about something you can do in Magic that they might not have otherwise realized.
God this deck wishes Ghostly Prison and Propaganda were in my budget. This would've been an Approach of the Second Sun deck if it weren't too expensive, on account of seeing Standard Play, or something like that, but instead we went with Azor's Elocutors, one of the worse alternate wincons in the game, but there you go.
This deck is more of a mess than most of these, because it really doesn't feel like it came together the way I wanted it to. It's going to *just* die to agro 9 times out of 10, and then find that when it goes up against midrange or control, being so Wall-heavy means all their removal is live, so you're playing the game on their terms, and going to get your butt handed to you on a silver platter for it because they have actual wincons.
I don't know how to make this one work on a budget, I openly admit it. If I had Ghostly Prison or Propaganda, I'd feel like this deck had a chance, but a playset of one is already over-budget on its own, and a playset of the other is 80-90% of the budget right there, and barely leaves enough left for the mana base. It can't be done.
As for budget: Maindeck cost is currently at ~$10 (according to the middle blue numbers on this very site under estimated value), sideboard at about ~$3.77, so we squeak in at 3 cents under-budget. My kinda deck.
So mostly this section is going to be notes on why I think these are good cards to learn from:
Azor's Elocutors is, of course, the star of the show here- filibuster Counters are a hell of a drug, and you need to make sure you get one online as quickly as you can manage. As additional defensive measures, you play a lot of walls- Fortified Rampart for stats and cost, Hover Barrier to catch fliers, and Wall of Frost for maximum durdle, and Blinding Mage can lock down an opposing creature as long as it's around.. Plus, the Elocutors can block pretty well themselves.
You also run Fell the Mighty, which is disgusting here. 5 mana 1-sided boardwipe most of the time, absolutely brutal. These are the kinds of sweet cards I don't restrict myself to modern-legal decks for.
Font of Fortunes is a card advantage tool that lets you hold up 2 mana for your instants- The Classics Essence Scatter and Immolating Glare, Guard Duty is a card I wouldn't use in many decks other than this, but is hilarious and solid here.
And, finally, Brave the Sands is just a good buff to your walls and other blockers. Not useful in every matchup, and you're not gonna get much out of that vigilance, but it makes Wall of Frost nigh-unbeatable against the right decks.
Manabase is meant to be a touch lacking, but also super-budget. I'll be doing the same for all of them.
As for the sideboard, this IS supposed to be a sideboard they learn how to use, to make their deck perform better in the right matchups, or just in general to customize their decks within constraints.
Extra walls based on what you're up against (Hover in case it's lots of fliers, Frost if they go real wide), Baird because I couldn't afford Ghostly Prison or the Angel who does the same thing, but he'll do, Negate is interaction, and Reprisal is good against Control and Midrange.
Orbs of Warding is a sideboard option if they're throwing a lot of little damage at you, or just if they run burn spells that they can use to prevent you from ticking up Filibuster Counters.
And Curse of Swine is just really funny to me, lets you turn a large board of dangerous creatures into cute lil' pigs that can't do much to hurt you. Great against midrange or control.